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Schedule The schedule is updated throughout the semester.
| Date | Speaker | Institution | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 8, 2024 | Patricia Sorya | Université du Québec à Montréal | Bounding non-integral non-characterizing Dehn surgeries |
| Nov 15, 2024 | Mike Wong | University of Ottawa | An introduction to Morse homology |
| Mar 28, 2025 4:00 pm–5:00 pm |
Federico Salmoiraghi | Queen's University | Gluing Reeb vector fields and Anosov flows via convex surface theory |
Abstracts
Date Nov 8, 2024
Speaker Patricia Sorya
Title Bounding non-integral non-characterizing Dehn surgeries
Abstract A Dehn surgery slope p/q is said to be characterizing for a knot K if the homeomorphism type of the p/q-Dehn surgery along K determines the knot up to isotopy. I discuss advances towards a conjecture of McCoy that states that for any knot, all but at most finitely many non-integral slopes are characterizing.
Date Nov 15, 2024
Speaker Mike Wong
Title An introduction to Morse homology
Abstract In this talk, we will outline how Morse theory can recover the CW homology of a smooth, finite-dimensional, closed manifold, with a view towards Floer homology.
Date Mar 28, 2025
Speaker Federico Salmoiraghi
Title Gluing Reeb vector fields and Anosov flows via convex surface theory
Abstract Contact structures and their even dimensional analogue, symplectic structures, first arose in physics with applications in optics, thermodynamics, and mechanics. Around the early 1970s, applications of contact geometry to 3-dimensional topology began to play an important role. More recently, deep connections with hyperbolic dynamics have been discovered.
The introduction of convex surfaces by Giroux in the mid 1990s dramatically enhanced our understanding of contact structures in dimension 3. One important result obtained by Giroux is that contact manifolds can be glued together along compatible convex boundaries. In this talk we will explore recent applications of convex surface theory to 3-dimensional hyperbolic dynamics. After introducing definitions and examples of contact structures and Anosov flows, we will explain how to use convex surface theory to construct a general framework for cut-and-paste operations on Anosov flows. This is joint work with Antonio Alfieri.
If you have questions about the seminar, please direct them to Mike Wong, at Mike [dot] Wong [at] uOttawa [dot] ca.